Garg!

I was taking pictures just now and I was trying to find my Opera polishes to try and take a full-bottle picture for reader Pixie in comparison to a regular bottle. Unfortunately, I left it back home. I'll try to search through pictures of the bottle by itself, but I can't do a comparison. I would say that the polish is like half the size of an OPI bottle, but I'm not sure. Sorry Pixie!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well it's not quite Thanksgiving in the States yet but it's the fourth Thursday in China, so it's Thanksgiving for us! Honestly, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because there's no gift-giving. As much as I love Christmas, sometimes the gift-giving takes away from the true meaning of Christmas. There's something to be said about a holiday that makes people reflect about what they're thankful for in life. It's a very philosophical holiday, which I love.

Well, I've been saving this picture for forever, because this polish just screams Thanksgiving to me, Piggy Polish's Harvest Moon. To be honest, I know it's the name of a video game but I've never played it. But there's just something about this orangey brownish weird color that makes me want to dig into a pumpkin pie.

So what am I thankful of? The usual: family, friends, my health (though sometimes my lungs like to turn against me). I'm also thankful though for YOU, my readers, who have even decided to stick with me through my four month polish dry spell, lol. I will be even more thankful when I return back home to California and reunite with my massive nail polish collection.

Also, reader Brooke asked me about how to apply chunky glitters, like the NYC one I used for my 4h of July mani. The way I usually do it is by tilting the bottle slightly and then swirling the brush around before lifting the brush out of the bottle. Usually I'm able to get more of the chunky glitters. Hope this helps!

I will be having Chinese food this year probably instead of turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy, so eat lots for me!

Since I also know I have a few international readers too, I have to note that this whole Mumbai situation is distressing and sad. My sincerest condolences to anyone who has been affected by this.

Responses

Hello there! Sorry for the slow trickle of posts, I've been busy with summer school and all. Here are some answers to some comments:

Reader Stef wanted to know where I find empty bottles for frankens. You can buy empty nail polish bottles at some beauty supplies or online at either 8ty8beauty or head2toebeauty. Or, you can use empty bottles. I sometimes use empty (or near empty) bottles of my go-to quick-dry topcoat, INM's Out the Door. If I'm removing any excess polish, I usually pour it into a ziploc with tissues or paper towels inside to absorb the polish. Or, I use a tiny dropper (you can buy them at Sally's Beauty) to clean out the inside with a little bit of acetone and then wait for the acetone to dry. This can also be done with Q-tips soaked in acetone too but sometimes they will leave little cottony fibers. I hope this helps Stef!

And well, no one likes to face criticism. So even though this next, loooong comment from Anonymous was well, annoying to read, I think it's important that I still address this. Anonymous, in response to my post on different types of nail polish remover, had this to say:

I find it interesting that essentially you stating that non-acetone nail polish remover is still acetone polish remover with less acetone in it than acetone polish remover has.
Um, I think the key word here is "Non." As in "Non-Acetone." This means that NO acetone is used in non-acetone polish remover. Other ingredients such as rthyl acetate, or methyl acetate are most commonly used in these polish removers as a substitute for acetone. BTW, acetone is really a relatively safe solvent. You speak about solvents as though they are a dangerous thing. Of course you knew that ordinary water is the most common solvent in existence? You can safely use pure acetone to remove nail polish. Acetone is acetone, regardless of the labeling as "Polish remover," or whatever. The same acetone is founf in Home Depot and Lowes!
The bottom line is this: Non-acetone polish remover does NOT contain ANY acetone. None. Zilch...That's all I'm trying to say. If in doubt, read the ingredients on the back of a bottle of non-acetone polish remover. You'll see what I mean!!!

I don't think Anon meant to be mean (or maybe he/she did), but I will admit that it wasn't my best post. I promise I will do a better, more comprehensive post about different types of remover because well, I did forget that there are removers out there that are natural and contain alternatives to any types of acetone. So please be patient, and do have patience with me too. I'm not perfect but I do appreciate listening to different opinions. Yes it stings a bit in the beginning, but sometimes the truth does hurt a bit.

PS: I do know that water is a common solvent though, I don't think I made it very clear. I didn't mean that all solvents are dangerous though I don't think that was conveyed very well. Pure acetone still has its hazards though.

Also though, if you do have any questions or comments, please e-mail me or comment on one of my posts. If you feel uncomfortable about your comment, since I do post some comments on the blog sometimes, please e-mail me directly or leave an e-mail address I can write to. Thanks!

Oh yeah, and since I am a tennis nerd, I am excited to have been up since 8AM PST watching the Federer-Nadal final of the Wimbledone Championships (which ended around 1PM). Needless to say, the match was pretty epic and though the player I wanted to win didn't (Federer), I think Nadal absolutely deserved it and that they both played some amazing tennis today. Rock on!

Responses

Yesterday I went to L.A. with some friends and I had a blast! We hit Japantown for some ramen and then spent two hours at the Griffith Observatory, which is quite amazing. Finally, we ended up at Huntington Beach for about forty minutes. It felt so nice to just get away. Unfortunately, even though we had a blast, I ended up coming back around 2-3am! Add on another hour and a half of erm, talking to a certain person on the phone, and well I was exhausted.

Pretty much, I'm being lazy and fully utilizing the meaning of summer. However, I've begun to neglect my duties as a blogger a bit. Like I've said before, I like to post everyday. Or at the very least, every two days. Maybe you guys, as the readers, can't tell but I definitely can! I like to respond to e-mails and comments as soon as possible.

In response to my last post, reader Shryh brought up an excellent point, saying "I actually think it's high time we started pushing nail polish boundaries at the workplace. I understand if you're in a conservative field like finance or law neon pinks and yellows might be a bit incongruous. Navy blue, vamps and greys, on the other hand, strike an appropriately somber note." First off, I love how well-worded and logical this comment was. I've also totally added 'incongruous' to my vocabulary because it's a cool word. But really, she does make a good point. Since I'm still a student, I don't really know how the workplace works. I offered my opinion before that I believed that in professional environments, people should stick to neutrals colors. However, Shryh really did bring up a good point that darker polishes could convey a different sort of professionalism as well. I guess it really does depend on each individual work environment.

Another reader, Sania, asked (in response to the SH Nail Brightener), "Since you mentioned that this base coat destroyed your nails, I'd *love* to know what you do to get them back into good shape. I had a np absolutely destroy my nails last week, and like yours, now my cuticles are dry and peely, and nails stained. Any tips?" In order to restore moisture to my nails, I use a combination of hand lotion and a cuticle balm for intensive, direct moisture. I really like Eucerin products personally, and for a cuticle balm I really like Burt Bee's Cuticle Balm. You can find all these things at local drug stores or at Target. Since the water in the city where I attend college can be very drying, I also use gloves whenever I wash the dishes. For peeling nails, it's always a good idea to invest in a strengthening base coat too. Also, though I normally do wear nail polish, if I do have dry nails I generally try to restore moisture a bit before I put polish on again.

I know I talked about Camp Rock before, and since it premiered today I guess I should share my thoughts on that. Well, I didn't really care for it. However, I did put on polish during it so it wasn't a complete waste of time.

Speaking of being unimpressed, All Lacquered Up has a sneak peek of the Chanel Fall Collection polishes, and none of the colors really stand out to me. I'm not a huge fan of gold polishes but even so, the $30 price tag for Gold Fiction is enough to deter me from buying it. After all, with $30 you could buy like 3 or 4 other gold polishes. Kaleidoscope definitely would not look good with my coloring and Fantastic is spectacularly not fantastic. If I'm going to pay $19 for a polish, it's really got to call out to be and these Chanel colors aren't doing it. I'm really disappointed by Kaleidoscope too, I really hoped for it, which was described as a green-gold, to be greener. So much potential. So much fail. Oh well, more money for the OPI and China Glaze collections!